The Soviet Response to Antisemitism, 1918

The leadership of the broader Russian socialist movement made its position on antisemitism clear in the very moment of revolution itself. On 26 October 1917, as power passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets passed a resolution against pogroms. 1 However, in the first nine months of Soviet power, the Bolshevik leadership did not broach the question of antisemitism even once. By late July 1918, no response had been made to the devastating Red pogroms in Chernihiv during the spring of that year. Eventually, on 26 July 1918, the Soviet government issued a decree on anti-Jewish violence. Traditionally, historians begin their discussions of the Bolshevik response to antisemitism after 1917 by citing this important document. 2 However, the decree marked not the beginning but the culmination of the first phase of the Soviet response to antisemitism. Between April and July 1918, a small group of Jewish socialists were engaged in an intensive phase of anti-racist praxis within the lower echelons of the Soviet state apparatus. Until now, this chapter in the history of the Russian Revolution has been almost entirely overlooked. 3